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THE MISSING APGP 

By unknown 
It’s been almost 7 years since the rare APGP was last sighted at the Duta Toll, headed towards Kuala Lumpur on a tow truck.

Many LROM members were scrambling to buy the APGP, who beat them to it?

The APGP, or air portable general purpose vehicle, was built as an amphibious Landrover prototype. A total of 50 units were built in 1963. The vehicle's engine had a breather pipe and the exhaust was fitted with an one way valve for deep wading.

Including the driver, it was equipped to carry ten soldiers, plus equipment.

The chassis was filled with foam to aid buoyancy. The floatation airbags were made of thin rubber, they were inflated by the exhaust of the vehicle. Propulsion was provided via a permanently engaged propeller, mounted in the standard rear prop shaft that drives the back axle.

But where is the Malaysian APGP now?

Ok, I own up!

You see, I was the one who positively identified the weird looking Series IIa vehicle, spotted by Denzil by the roadside at Temoh, Perak in September 2002; as an APGP!

As a collector of rare Landrovers, I had to rescue the APGP, there were far too many Series Landrovers in the nearby Cameron Highland, chances of this rare gem being cut up for parts were real!

I paid the old workshop owner RM8,000 and the APGP was brought to my restoration yard at Sungai Besi, Selangor in November 2002.

I meant to restore her secretly and surprise fellow LROM members when I launch her at the nearby lake at the Mines Resort on the next Merdeka Parade Day. To keep the element of surprise I had adamantly denied any knowledge of the missing APGP when questioned by Nick Elphick and other members.

Alas, as in all restoration projects, my APGP project was punctuated by various events, no apologies though as I was gainfully distracted over the years by:

2003 : The capture of "Goldie" my pet golden Arowana fish.
2004 : The discovery of gold-bearing bearings in my old Series One.
2005 : Was appointed sole agent for the Aluminium plant in Sarawak which melted most of Kerling yard's old Landies. Aluminium prices rocketed after my appointment!
2006 : The passing of Kenichi-San in Sungei Lembing, allowing me to keep my promise of visiting the secret tunnel of 2nd World War loot only after his death, resulting in the acquisition of “Ken” the Range Rover and “Paititi” the Ferrari.
2007 : The visit to the Kinabatangan river in Sabah after my mechanics found some small diamonds in the bull bar of my Camel Trophy Discovery, resulting in, among other parcels, a pair of 8 carat pink stones now adorning some lucky lady’s ears, which helped me tremendously in my MBO of a mining company from its listed parent.
2008 : The commissioning of my new copper mine, after ionic copper in flood water which coated the brake drum of my Discovery led me to the ore body.

But the fate of the APGP changed after I met one-arm Bob at last year’s Christmas party!

One-arm Bob is a war veteran from Scotland now living in Ipoh. He was with the Hussars, the platoon that, in Bob’s words, chased after Chin Peng (the feared leader of the communist party of Malaya) in the 1960s in north Perak.

Among his exploits, whisky exaggerated, he recalled how in October 1963, his platoon was asked to seek and destroy a Bandit’s camp in upper Temengor using a weird swimming Landrover! (Bingo!)

The camp was located near a waterfall along the treacherous Temengor river, the course had many rocky bars rendering boat navigation impossible.

But in 1963, a solution was found! The SAS had flown in an amphibious Landrover! A tough 4x4 and a boat all in one!

Bob’s platoon was sent up river in October 1963, they inflated the airbags using the exhaust gas and went upstream, drove through rock bars and propelled over deeper section of the river.

They came under heavy fire as they approached the camp, but miraculously scored a complete success with little casualty, except that Bob's left arm was studded with communist's lead, which was later amputated at the Taiping Hospital.

They recovered from the camp an assortment of weapons, communist propaganda papers, and a few gunnysacks of heavy, yellow metallic minerals weighing more than half a ton.

They were ambushed on their triumphant return! A CPM’s sniper punctured the starboard airbag, which soon took in water, threatening to tip the Landrover over. With quick thinking the injured Bob rolled over to the port side to puncture the other airbag to balance the vehicle, while his comrades returned fire with their Tommy guns, decimating the enemy.

Their Landrover sank!

Thanks to the APGP design they were able to wade their deflated rig to the shore.

Once on land, they found their loot impeding the Landrover's 65 horses. Whatever the heavy yellow mineral was, their safety was jeopardised!

Hastily they buried the gunnysacks in a nearby limestone cave, and Bob used his Sgian Dubh to carve a location map of their buried loot on the inner side of the Landrover’s aluminium bulkhead.

The amphibious Landrover was decommissioned after that sortie, the army thought that having thin rubber airbags as floaters were just too vulnerable.

One-arm Bob lamented that he heard nothing of that Landrover again.

I kept mum, took leave from the host and headed straight to my restoration yard at Sungai Besi....

I knew for a fact that, 15 years after one-arm Bob's adventure, the Geological Survey of Malaysia had reported finding gold mineralisation at the Temengor river, while conducting mineral clearance survey for the building of the proposed Temengor Dam. The dam was subsequently built despite the gold deposit because it was a security strategic move to block the bandits; and in 1982, the CPM signed peace treaty with the Malaysian government, the Temengor dam has since become a tourists’ attraction.

A week after Christmas I visited a remote limestone cave at the Belum Forest, upstream from the Temengor dam.

What a beautiful cave!

As a good nature's lover, I cleaned the cave of garbage, and removed several old gunnysacks.

A Porsche Cayene is now sitting in my garage, and the coverted HNWI membership is on the way. Todate I still keep a box of the sack's contents as souvenir, I believe they are of historic value!

As for the APGP, well, any Cameronean interested in a cut-up Series IIa for parts? Bulkhead not included.